FILE: Hundreds of Cambodian-Americans gather near the United Nations headquarters in New York city on Saturday, September 29, 2018, to protest against the visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen after a much criticized national election in July. (Sun Narin/VOA Khmer)

An activist said the retirement of Ed Royce, a prominent Republican critic of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, would be a loss to the Cambodian-American community.

Washington – Cambodian-American community leaders have said the victory of the Democrats in the US midterm elections this month will not affect the passage of a bill that would place sanctions on senior Cambodian officials over the country’s deteriorating human rights and democratic record.

The bill, known as the Cambodia Accountability and Return on Investment (CARI)Act, could lead to Cambodian officials’ assets being frozen if Kem Sokha, the former leader of Cambodia’s main opposition party, remains under house arrest and charged with treason.

In late January, eight influential senators, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Marco Rubio, wrote Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, to urge her the government to “isolate the Cambodian government, pressure them to reverse course”.

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